Graysons catering starts year with double-contract win

Graysons Hospitality Ltd, a Chelmsford-based contract caterer and restaurant operator, has won two new contracts worth a combined total in excess of £2 million.

The larger contract win is with Ricardo plc, a publicly listed global engineering and strategic, technical and environmental consultancy and manufacturing business.

The deal will see Graysons deliver catering services for over 750 employees over the next five years at Ricardo’s headquarters in Shoreham, West Sussex.

The contract is worth around £1.7m and includes the provision of hospitality services over an initial five-year contract term. The contract was won from CH&Co.

Ricardo site manager for Shoreham & Cambridge Technical Centres, Tim Dray, said: “We are delighted to have appointed Graysons as our new caterer due to their continuous demonstration of flexibility, innovation and a strong support network for the catering team on site to deliver innovation and continuous improvement.

“Ricardo are very impressed with the way that the team worked to mobilise the services and created a ‘wow’ factor in the restaurant from day one with modern exciting food and really great service. Sales in the restaurant have increased significantly since Graysons started.”

Graysons second contract win was with IOP Publishing in Temple Meads, Bristol and is worth around £550,000.

The contract was also taken from CH&Co, whose Harbour & Jones subsidiary had previously managed the catering for the six years.

Graysons will be working in partnership with IOP Publishing to manage the staff restaurant facility for the 340 people on site as well as providing hospitality services for meeting rooms and events.

Simona Oproiu, business development director of Graysons, said “We are extremely excited and very proud to work with such passionate and great people who want their catering services to be modern, fresh and innovative.

“We know that Bristol is considered ‘the city with arguably the best food scene in the UK’ and our aim right from the beginning was to deliver an innovative high-street offer and menus created from the best ingredients we can get our hands on locally.’’

Established in 2008 by Sir Francis Mackay and led by managing director, Tim O’Neill, Graysons operates in the business and industry, conference venue, and public catering sectors including clients such as The Francis Crick Institute, the British Library, and QVC.